One of the recent innovations in painting has been the development of various roller apparatus which contain their own paint supply. The roller apparatus are filled directly from a can which has a specially designed cap positioned thereover with a filler tube protruding upwardly therefrom. This eliminates the need for messy roller trays and speeds up the painting process.
In one current device, a rubber sleeve is placed in contact with the input tube. The sleeve has a slit in one end which allows the sleeve to remain in a normally closed position. The tube is pushed through the slit opening a passage to a paint reservoir in the handle which is coupled to the roller. Another device includes a spring-activated plunger type valve stem which is activated by a push-button on the valve body. The paint filler tube is inserted into a hole in the valve body and the button is then pushed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,231,151 to Clark et al and 4,140,410 to Garcia are of interest in this area but are not extremely relevant.
The present invention is an improvement over the present commercial devices and the existing prior art as will be described in detail hereinafter.